Food In Shanghai (Part 2)

Armed with a camera in hand, no place is untouchable as far as i am concerned (thats of course limited to publicly acceptable photos unlike a certain someone who is quite notorious at the moment). If you are wondering why there were no noon or lunch shots, well, i was there to work my friends, and time isn't enough for afternoon meal shots. Not much anyway, there will be a few later on but patience is always a virtue. *winks*

Blurry picture? Nah, its just the fog.

Another blurry picture? Nah, its the smoke emitted from neighbouring tables.

The story behind this meal is rather simple. Having made a few friends from the day's training session, the group decided to gather again for dinner (this will repeat for the next 5 days). So 3 girls and 3 guys set out on 2 cabs to a district further then normal from our hotel. And we conveniently got lost from each other, the next half hour involved us frantically trying to get in touch, talking a lot of rubbish, scolding the cab driver and being asked to alight at some place we have no idea where. Perfect day oh perfect day! In the end, we managed to find each other after much tribulations and 4 Chinese Nationals, 1 Singaporean and 1 Australian made their way around to search for food.
I can honestly say i've never enjoyed walking in the open streets as much as i did in cold Shanghai. The weather is wonderful, freezing for others but godsend for me. Either way, we found the restaurant above because the interior and loud neon signs caught the girls attention. Guys had no say since we're all foreigners so we just ate where we were told. Upon entering, the service once again astounded us. Orders forgotten, people smoking everywhere and basically screaming in each others ears. Talk about culture shock. Our orders were taking by a bunch of people looking as though they've just woken up so thats how it was.

Stir Fried Black Pepper and Honey Pork

Well, all dishes were ordered by the ladies yet again because as i've mentioned, guys take a back seat in this part of town. The first which you see above is pleasant. Fragrant, warm and very chewy. Its like sweet and sour pork except that they added pepper and had the meat in longish states. It could be better if the meat wasn't shaped like worms which still makes me doubt it really was pork i had.

Greens (Kai Lan)

This dish did not come as ordered. We were expecting to eat the leaves but got all the stems instead. Apparently another culture shock or service difference here. I can say, however, that the stems were surprisingly crunchy and didn't require as much effort as i thought by the way it looks. Not too bad actually.

Pork Ribs with honey and bread crumbs

Looks appetising doesn't it? If only the oil wasn't so apparent. First bite proved to be fragrant, oily and tender. The fried bread crumbs add a certain dimension to the dish but nothing too fancy. And further bites reveal the ribs over marinated which made it a tad too salty for my tastes.

Pigeon Soup

I'm sure everyone in Singapore is used to eating the big variety in the bird family. How about having a little of its extended midget family? Enter the pigeon, so small, so innocent and so cooked. There's a phrase in Mandarin that basically means they will eat anything as long as they don't die from it. I tend to believe thats true. I pretty much lost my appetite the moment i saw the pigeon but plowed along for the sake of my blog readers. The meat is tender and easily broken. I tend to feel it resembles frog's meat in terms of firmness and chicken meat in terms of taste. The soup itself is a let down with hardly anything noteworthy to remember.

Shui Zhu Yu (Literally water cooked fish)

Chili....lots of chili. Both me and my new Australian friend had the same astonished look on our faces when we saw the dish. I was afraid to eat it but he was very excited to try. I suppose not having decent Chinese food and having rice once a year does that to people. Anyway, the dish looks menacing but lacks bite. The fish is once again plentiful and extremely fresh, firm and sweet. I feel so pampered having fish of this quality on a daily basis. All the chili you see only added a mild flavor which did not overwhelm the sweetness of the fish at all. Maybe its the oil that separated everything but seriously, the chili had very little taste in this rendition. Imagine my relief at that, i still had less then 3 pieces of fish due to the oil. (In case you were wondering. Yes, all the liquid you see is oil. Not soup, not stock, its pure oil.)

Salted Egg Potato

Another dish that rates high on cholesterol and low on health. I suppose thats the norm in this country thus far. Mashed potatoes mixed with salted egg batter and fried. It actually tastes pretty good. Imagine round french fries with salty batter and some raw egg taste together and you will get some inkling of how the dish tastes like. Interesting but definitely not healthy.

Cheers!

Now that the meal was done, how else to celebrate knowing new friends apart from a toast? I feel fortunate to have met the group who turned out to be all nice, friendly and highly driven people. That concludes my second night in Shanghai which was to be an adventure from start to finish.

Oh! The cost of the meal? Its less then $10 per head having a meal here. Amazing? Its more of a norm then anything in Shanghai. There's more to come of course. Look out for it.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

Last word:
The restaurant itself is nothing to shout about with its bad service, forgotten orders and smoky customers. The food ranges from average to just barely passable but the company i had is just excellent and i enjoyed the adventure before we found the place. So to me, i still had a blast. The journey back was easier and we managed to find a shop nearby where i picked up something for my gf in Singapore. Thank goodness because apart from that shop, i honestly couldn't find anything else worth buying in the place. A good experience and another good day spent for me.